Apple’s Siri overhaul is a ‘watershed moment’ in its long-awaited AI push – but it still has to win over skeptics

Apple has announced a long-awaited overhaul of its Siri personal assistant in a move analysts have described as a clear signal of its future AI approach.

As part of the upgrade, Siri will be integrated with Apple Intelligence, the tech giant’s in-house AI platform, and will be renamed ‘Siri AI’.

Expected to launch later this year, the upgrade will reframe Siri as more of a chatbot akin to the likes of ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini – the latter of which underpins the AI assistant following a billion dollar deal.

This means Siri will provide users with answers to queries sourced from information on the web in addition to traditional personal context-focused queries.

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Apple described the revamped Siri as “profoundly more intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable” compared to its predecessor.

Siri revamp highlights Apple’s AI focus

The move by Apple follows a lengthy process to deliver functional AI capabilities for users, an aspect of the company’s approach that has drawn criticism from customers and raised questions over its direction with the technology.

While Apple touted AI-powered upgrades to the assistant back in 2024, the company has repeatedly postponed any concrete announcements on this front. Indeed, the company appeared to acknowledge its lack of progress on this front at its Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday.

Craig Federighi, senior vice president for software engineering at Apple, said the company has taken a measured approach to integration of AI across its product ranges.

“Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people, all of us, that it’s ultimately meant to serve,” he said.

Ben Wood, Chief Analyst at CCS Insight, said Apple provided users with “some answers” to long-running questions about its shortcomings in AI.

Crucially, while new features outlined by the company aren’t exactly groundbreaking, the company’s track record in streamlining integration could make a big difference.

“Having acknowledged its shortcomings at last year’s event, there was no margin for error,” he said. “Many of the new AI-powered capabilities are similar to those offered by rivals, but Apple has a strong history of integrating such features in ways that make them more accessible to users across its deeply integrated hardware, software, and services.”

“It is also clearly seeking to differentiate through its privacy promises,” Wood added. “This looks like a step in the right direction, but there is no room for complacency, and Apple still has a long AI journey ahead.”

On Gemini’s involvement in the Siri upgrade, Wood said that speculation had been mounting ahead of the event over whether any upgrade would essentially be “Apple Intelligence powered by Google Gemini”.

Notably, however, the tech giant appears to have used the model to “accelerate and improve” the development of its own foundation model – a crucial factor for the company when it comes to privacy-related considerations.

“Apple remains in charge of pre-training, post-training, and reinforcement learning and is putting a strict privacy layer around the entire experience,” he said.

Forrester VP principal analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee echoed Wood’s comments both on privacy and potential integration challenges. Apple’s unique selling point lies in simplicity, he noted.

“In classic Apple fashion, the focus shifts from underlying technology to outcomes: usefulness, simplicity, and trust. The lesson for brands is clear: market the value, not the ingredients,” he said.

Winning over skeptics

While the overhaul marks a “watershed moment” for Apple, Forrester VP principal analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee said the company’s stop-start approach to AI over the last three years means it still has many skeptics to win over.

“After stumbling with the Apple Intelligence roll-out, Apple’s success will hinge on delivering the new Siri experience quickly – and ensuring it works as promised for iPhone users at scale,” he commented.

“I think Apple will convince the only skeptics that really matter – it's customers and prospects who may be getting their AI fix elsewhere – so long as they deliver what they have promised, and in short order.”

Chatterjee noted that Apple customers have “cut them plenty of slack” so far despite obvious shortcomings. Indeed, the company hasn’t witnessed a negative effect on revenue growth or its user base, but that could change if the rollout once again stalls.

“That grace period has an expiry date. A second miss, after Apple Intelligence, with Siri AI could hasten that date significantly.”

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